Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, will marry his partner, James Coyle, this summer – marking the Royal Family’s first same-sex wedding.
According to the Daily Mail, the 55-year-old, who came out as gay two years ago, will marry James at his country estate in Devon.
The outlet has also reported that Ivar’s ex-wife and mother of his three daughters, Lady Penny Mountbatten, will give him away at the ceremony.
Ivar said, “I loved Penny when we were married, as I still do very much, and I loved our family unit. I never thought this would happen. It’s brilliant, but I never thought I’d marry a man.”
#FathersDay #RoyalWedding Lord Ivar Mountbatten, cousin to The Queen, will wed James Coyle at a private chapel on his estate in Devon this summer – The Royal Family’s first-ever gay marriage. His ex-wife Penny will walk him up the aisle and give him away. pic.twitter.com/YumyO9bREv
— Cromwell (@Cromwell606) June 17, 2018
Speaking about their upcoming nuptials, Ivar’s fiancé James said, “We’ll be pronounced partners in marriage, but the ceremony itself will be very small. It’s just for the girls and close family and friends.”
“Everyone else — about 120 friends — will arrive for the party afterwards. We’ll have lovely food and really good music, but there won’t be two men in tuxedos on a cake, white doves or anything twee or contrived like that.”
Lord Ivar Mountbatten is the Queen’s third cousin once removed, and the Queen’s youngest son Prince Edward is godparent to Ivar’s children.
“Sophie (Edward’s wife) and Edward know of our plans and are really excited for us,” Ivar told the Daily Mail. “Sadly they can’t come to the wedding. Their diaries are arranged months in advance and they’re not around, but they adore James. Everyone adores him.”
It’s unclear if any members of the Royal Family will attend the wedding, and the Queen is yet to comment on the nuptials.
However, the British monarch has been supportive of LGBTQ rights in the UK.
In her 2017 speech to parliament, the Queen vowed to make “further progress to tackle the gender pay gap and discrimination against people on the basis of their race, faith, gender, disability or sexual orientation.”
The same-sex marriage marks another step in the right direction for the Royal family, following Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle, who is previously divorced and biracial.
Their wedding was watched by 29 million people around the world, and it included a sermon by Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, who is the first black leader of the Episcopal Church in the United States.
